I recently heard a rather humorous public poll. People were asked: “Are you more loving and gracious than most people?” Over 80% of Americans said they were. Do the math. According to the average American, they are more loving and gracious, than the average American; humorous but telling. Of course, this doesn’t add up. And neither does it add up to God. This poll reveals the fact that we tend to have an inflated view of ourselves. We tend to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

We may fool ourselves and maybe even others, but not God. God examines the heart, and He does so accurately. Moreover, He doesn’t judge on a bell curve, whereby as long as you’re better than the “really bad people,” that is, as long as you’re in the “moral majority,” you’ll pass the final exam. No, God judges righteously, according to the perfect and eternal standard of His character. It is for this reason that Jesus commanded: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). To what then are you comparing yourself, to the “moral majority” or to the faultless Father?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

~ Matthew 5: 46-48

Well, what do you think Jesus would say is your greatest problem? Listen to what He says in Matthew 15. “[T]he things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean…” (Matthew 15: 18-20). According to Jesus, what is your greatest problem? Your heart; in other words, that part of your soul that decides what you will love, that part of your soul that is the controlling factor for your entire life. Jesus says that your heart is corrupted, that it is infected with a life-threatening disease, and unless it is cured, it leaves us in a state of toxic impurity before God. This is our greatest problem.

So, how about you? Do you think that if you just change the circumstances of our lives, then you’ll be alright? It has been my experience that we tend to think that we simply need a little outpatient surgery, but Jesus is prescribing a heart transplant. But how can this be done?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“And He was saying,  ’That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.’”

~ Mark 7: 20-23

But Jesus had a radically different agenda. Listen to the prescription He gives them. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23: 25-26). Unlike the religious leaders of His day, Jesus identified the chief human problem to be the heart. The human heart is the source of sinful behavior.

So how about you? Do you live as if merely rearranging your external behavior will make you a better person before God or do you realize that it is ultimately a matter of the heart?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, ‘Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him, but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.”

~ Mark 7: 14-15

Russian writer and thinker Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has put it this way: “If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” But dying to self is exactly what Jesus prescribes.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

~ Romans 3:23

Jesus Himself gives you another picture of judgment day relative to whether or not someone knows God personally. He said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me you evil doers’” (Matthew 7: 22-23).

Whether or not you really know God and are known by Him has eternal ramifications. The end result of not knowing God is not knowing Him for all eternity. This means being cut off from the source of all life and happiness forever. Mindboggling, but…

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

~ 2 Thessalonians 1: 6-9

What an apt illustration of sin! It promises satisfaction and for a time gives the illusion of it. But over time it only increases the hunger to the point where it becomes your master. Without being checked by the grace of God, it leads you on a downward spiral of consumption and addiction. Certainly, this pattern is more obvious in some than others, nonetheless, it is the state of us all. Listen to the words of Jesus: “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who sins is a slave of sin” (John 8:34).

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’”

~ John 8: 34-36

If we are to be rescued from our rebellion against God it will be because God does something that He is not obligated to do. If we really understood the greatness of our offense against God and the righteousness of His judgment against us, we would be shocked at His free grace and mercy in Christ.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord.”

~ Romans 6:23

Well, we can talk about tremendously positive things in Christ, but not without first talking about our misery in sin. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness; not my merit but my misery; not my riches but my need.” Unless we start there we have no hope of getting to the positive riches of Christ. Christ loves us as poor wretched sinners, and unless we start there the greatness of His love rings somewhat hollow. By first honestly looking at our
condition in sin, we magnify the glory of His grace.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

~ Romans 5: 6-8

Now if you are a thoughtful person, you must be asking the question: If people are as bad as the Bible says, then why are there so many seemingly nice people in the world? Though in some places one might fear being killed walking out of their house, this is not the norm. So what does the Bible mean by such sordid descriptions of human nature and activity?

When the Bible speaks in this way, it is speaking concerning the tendencies of the human heart. Fortunately, God has placed many things in the world to restrain the external expressions of our hearts, such as human government, parental authority, and the like. In addition, He sprinkles His redeemed people throughout the world as preserving agents against further personal and societal decay. But if God were to remove all these structures of common grace what would happen? Well, personally, I wouldn’t want to see it.

Something to think about from “The “Kingdom Perspective.”

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”

~ Jeremiah 17: 9

So how long will the punishment of those in hell last? According to Jesus, it will last forever and ever.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

~ Mark 9: 47-48

Jesus was convinced of the reality of hell. Are you?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of
these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

~ Matthew 25: 41-46

Bringing someone a meal merely so that you can get them to like you, or at least not think ill of you, would make that same act problematic on the virtue scale. The “inherently good” act would become less than good because the motive or end purpose for the act is selfish.

But if you do the same “good deed” out of love for your neighbor and a desire to honor them and God then you have a good deed from a good motive. Unfortunately, much of what we use to flatter ourselves that we are good people is nothing other than a cover up for the selfish extortion operation we are concealing in our hearts. We use good deeds to accomplish our selfish desires. True virtue requires not merely correct external behavior but also correct internal motives. In the words of the Bible, “man looks at the outward appearance but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16: 7).

Judging by these standards, some of the nicest of us are really the most wicked.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

~ Matthew 6: 1

If I try really hard to be nice to people so that they will like me or so that I can further my agenda, what good is that  in the eyes of God? Sure, on a human level it may function to win friends and influence people, but it doesn’t influence God or win His favor. Why not? Well, such maneuvers work only to glorify ourselves. Thus, in the end we have set up ourselves as the ultimate object of worship. In essence we are saying the chief purpose for my life is to glorify myself and I will even use externally kind things to further that end. Truly good and loving actions, however, find their ultimate justification outside of ourselves in God. That is, they seek to honor God. Unless you consider the issue of motive, you cannot truly judge whether anything we do is really morally good.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”

~ Matthew 5: 43-46

This was a lot for a ten year old boy to process and for me it was the first time that I came face to face with the ugly monster of death. My natural gut reaction was to object. Why? This was not right! Adults on every side tried to comfort my friends and me with petty words of “it will be all right” and “this is all a part of God’s plan and we need to accept it,” but deep inside something convinced me that death must have a more sinister origin. Death was wrong.

According to the Bible, though God is sovereign over death, yet it was not a part of the original creation. We were not made for death. Death is unnatural; every death, every funeral, is a testimony to the fact that there is something terribly wrong with us and the world we live in. Death is a result of an abnormality. Death is the byproduct of sin. It is an enemy of God and, praise God, will one day be banished from His kingdom.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.”

~ 1 Corinthians 15: 25-26

Grace & Peace,
The Management

So, how about you? If you are seeking a hiding place from the judgment of God, there is only one. And it is not a hiding place of your own creation or conniving, but rather a hiding place that God has created. Should you hide anywhere other than in the person and work of Christ, God will find you out. Nothing is hid from His sight.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”

~Hebrews 4: 11-14

Allow me to file a brief in the court of public opinion. Is God a God who is angry at His disobedient creatures? The testimony of the Bible says yes. Listen to the prophet Nahum, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and he reserves wrath for His enemies” (Nahum 1:2). Next witness: The apostle Paul in Romans 1:18, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Finally, the testimony of Jesus Himself: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth and how I wish it was already kindled” (Luke 12:49)!

God, being a good judge, is passionately concerned for justice. Therefore, He is committed to not allowing the guilty to go unpunished. How can we possibly escape His consuming judgment?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.”

~ Nahum 1: 2-3

But there is more to be said. Your lack of appreciation for this truth reveals another critical truth, namely your lack of appreciation for God. Being human is indeed a good thing. You are the crowning achievement of God’s creation. But this is not the whole picture. The rest of the story is that the entire human race has rebelled against God and is therefore trapped in a state of alienation from Him. In the words of St. Augustine, “Man is a good thing spoiled.” This is why you struggle with understanding your purpose and significance in the world. This is why we struggle to understand and love God.

Now I want to leave you with one question, perhaps the most crucial question of your life: How is it possible to reconnect with God and thereby know our purpose for existence? Do you think that God has provided a way to escape this alienation from Him?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

~ Genesis 1: 26-31

But is this really just an American phenomenon? No. For example, Jesus had the same assessment of the religious leaders of His day. Luke 16:14 says that the Pharisees were “lovers of money.”

But here is the point where we all must sit up and take notice. In the very next verse Jesus condemns the Pharisees for their love of money, saying that which “is valued among men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). That’s right. There is a difference between what we as fallen creatures value and what God values. The frightening thing is that we will be judged not according to what we value but according to what He values.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”

~ Revelation 3: 17-19

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Unfortunately, as sinners we have a tendency to mistake the slowness of God’s judgment for a belief that God doesn’t really care about what we do. Worse yet, we begin to assume that perhaps God does not think so badly of what we have done. “Perhaps,” we reason, “God is more like us than we originally thought. Psalm 50 warns us of just such false confidence. There God cites a list of infractions against His law and then says: “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you….”

Really, the point is quite clear. Don’t deceive yourself. Don’t misunderstand the slowness of God’s judgment. Every deed will have its judgment day and unless you find a hiding place in Christ you are exposed to that judgment.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

~Romans 2: 4-5